Bless you reader and bless everyone you are trying to love.

Continuing in Corinthians, love:
“does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil”
1 Cor. 13:5

Ok, so the Bible is pretty convicting. Again, notice the language. Does the Word say, “very rarely acts rudely” or “only seeks its own if it needs to?” No. It says, “not, not, not, no.” People often like to respond to Biblical doctrine with, “well that’s just one interpretation.” -(Another way of saying, from a well known dialogue, “did God really say..?” Gen. 3:1) They might assume here that the word ‘no’ has changed slightly over the years. And what was originally meant by the word ‘no’ was something most assuredly less extreme. How convenient that would be. Except! we are talking about the very attributes of God. Remember, “God is Love.” And while if given the power I would have changed some of these attributes to make Jennifer LeGrand my High School girlfriend, I would have, even then, known it to be unnatural and wrong. And still I hear Jennifer is even more beautiful while I am even more single.. *sigh*…

Anyway, regarding the above passage. Am I “Rude?” Not very often but still I have been known to be rude. I have even been called a rude person. And that by someone I will admit knew me fairly well. I was offended, but I can be pretty short with people sometimes. I used to be worse, but I will always have that part of me that can switch on a rude attitude.
“Does not seek it’s own”? I have certainly thought more about myself in this life than I have about anyone else. As well as this I can personally attest to the fact that I nearly always prefer the things I want to what others want. And what human doesn’t?
“Is not provoked?” Here I’m guilty again. Although I have managed to better feign not being provoked over the years. Does that count?
“Thinks no evil.”  No. I never think bad thoughts. I never even have self-centered or angry thoughts. Yikes! I’m kidding of course. It is amazing that people can actually take that stance, still I have heard it, and many times.

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A. By God’s standard of love I do not measure up. I fail continually on every last point.
B. By mans standard well, I do not care. But for conversation sake I will say that if ever I am rude or easily provoked or selfish or unkind and (I must add) if I notice it, it truly hurts and disturbs me. Not because of social or personal woes, but because I know I am a Christian and am supposed to be honorable toward God because He has already forgiven me so much. I am a Christian and I do not want other non-christians to doubt the power of God in not being able to keep me neatly in line. Or doubt the reality of what Christ has done freely for all of us. But, I still sin. I sin because I just don’t care sometimes. And each time it hurts. And I either wish the sin away. Pray over it and ask God for help, both sincerely and insincerely. Feel sore about it or maybe stop it all together. This is called repentance, Metanoeo in Greek. It means to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins. Clearly I’ve got me some Metanoeo.

And this brings us to the Gospel and repentance. The Gospel is believed by me and many to really only have two halves: repentance and belief. “Repent” appears 36 times from Matt. 3:2  “And saying, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” to Rev. 3:19 “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.”

Question: How can one repent unless one really looks at their heart and the sin they should be repenting of? Without this there is no real repentance. Just unresolved guilty feelings. Do you have belief, but think Holiness is for monks? Belief is only half. It says in James 2:19 “..the devils also believe and tremble.”

Back to the ‘Love Chapter’
When we read, “does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;” (and so much more in God’s Word) it is evident we cannot really measure up in any real way. Instead, consider it as a mirror revealing God’s attributes and at the same time our most glaring faults. The faults hurting the ones we love the most. The faults that have caused us so much pain. The faults that make us appear as hypocritical christians to a world that is supposed to “know us by our love.” Consider it a ‘Love Mirror’ that can reveal your most harmful and tangible faults. This chapter is useless if used to qualify someone else’s love. You may know by now, they fail. But for us personally to see Gods beauty and perfection and where and how we lack His attributes. Still, please don’t forget. If you have trusted in Christ then your salvation is not based on performance in this regard or any regard. Awesome!

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John 13:34